The invention relates to an airbag unit for a motor vehicle.
Airbag units are used in motor vehicles in order to increase passive safety and to improve vehicle occupant protection. The airbag units generally have, in this context, a gas bag and a gas generator for filling the gas bag with a filling gas. For use in airbag units, different types of gas generators are known, in particular also tubular gas generators, in which the gas generator housing has a tubular design. These tubular gas generators have the advantage that they are of very slender design and therefore have a small construction dimension in the tube cross-section direction. In the case of a stationary installation of the tubular gas generator, in which the tube axis points in the direction of the vehicle interior, a particularly favourable installation dimension is achieved in the otherwise limited surface of the dashboard.
There is the problem, in the case of a stationary installation of a tubular gas generator, that the tubular gas generator itself entails a risk of injury, since it is a projecting part fixed to the vehicle. For parts of this kind which are fixed to the vehicle and are adjacent to the vehicle interior, there are legally prescribed limit values for the acceleration which may be exerted by the parts, for example in the event of a head-on impact, on the head. Parts arranged in the dashboard region must therefore have a defined deformation behaviour, so that these limit values can be fulfilled. However, because of their function of generating a pressure gas, tubular gas generators are not deformable to the necessary extent.